


School Spirit

by gamerfic



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Mission Fic, Post-Canon, School Reunion, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 15:18:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8922163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gamerfic/pseuds/gamerfic
Summary: The Ghostbusters face their most daunting challenge yet: a haunting at Erin and Abby's high school class reunion.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mendeia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mendeia/gifts).



The Ghostbusters walked slowly through the deserted halls of Maple Bluff High School with their proton packs at the ready. Abby shook her head as she looked down at her silent PKE meter. "I'm not getting much of a reading."

"Told you the lady who hired us was full of it," said Patty.

"I don't know," said Holtzmann. "The walls in the orchestra room were straight-up bleeding. And not just oozing, either - like, gushing. _Spurting_ , even."

"Okay, okay, enough with the synonyms," said Patty.

"Can we please just keep trying until we're sure there's nothing here?" Erin asked nervously. "Principal Singh was so sure she'd seen evidence of a haunting. And I mean, she _is_ paying us to investigate, and we really need the money."

"Yeah, and you gave her the 'special promotional alumni discount rate,'" Patty scoffed.

" _Totally_ not a thing," Holtzmann muttered under her breath.

"What a cheap-ass," said Patty, nodding vigorously.

"Just stay focused," Erin said with a sigh. She looked around at the scuffed floor, the flickering fluorescent lights, and the rows of beat-up lockers lining the walls. Years ago, her own locker hadn't been far from here. She remembered the conspiratorial whispers of her classmates behind her back as she worked its combination lock, and the rude and mean-spirited notes (always addressed to "Ghost Girl") she'd often found shoved inside it. As far as Erin was concerned, MBHS was definitely haunted, by bad memories if not by ghosts.

"I'm picking something up," said Abby. Maple Bluff had been her high school too, but unlike Erin she didn't seem the least bit bothered by her surroundings. Now, she was staring at a row of bright blinking green lights across the top of the PKE meter. "It's faint, but I'm definitely detecting a paranormal presence." She moved the device in a slow arc in front of her until the antenna on the top began to whir. "There!" She pointed at a heavy wooden door stenciled with the words GIRLS' LOCKER ROOM.

Holtzmann yelled incoherently and kicked open the door. A moment later, she called from inside, "It's clear."

"Okay, I guess we're not bothering with stealth, then," Erin said as she followed Abby and Patty into the locker room. It was much nicer than she remembered from her high school days, with soft lighting, attractively painted walls, and even private shower stalls. "Wow."

Abby must have been thinking the same thing. "Looks like they remodeled. It's just our luck we never got to enjoy it, right, Erin?"

"You hear that?" whispered Patty. The others fell abruptly silent and listened closely. A faint rhythmic sound, like someone dribbling a basketball, echoed off the white tiled floor.

The Ghostbusters tiptoed between the rows of benches and lockers until they reached the source of the noise. It was coming from behind a closed door labeled COACH'S OFFICE. "You want to do the honors again, Holtzmann?" asked Erin softly.

"No way, no how," said Holtzmann. "I try not to touch anything inside a locker room if I can avoid it. Did you know you can actually get athlete's foot in places that aren't your feet? Don't ask me how I learned that."

"Oh, for crying out loud," said Abby, and yanked the door open.

Everyone regretted it immediately. Dozens of large rubber balls flew out of the office as if they had been shot from a cannon. The Ghostbusters yelped and ducked as the barrage of balls pelted all of them. Erin lifted her head and saw a strange green glow emanating from behind the door. She readied the wand of her proton pack as an apparition floated into view. It was the ghost of a middle-aged woman wearing a T-shirt, gym shorts, and tennis shoes. Erin recognized both the features of the ghost's sneering face and the whistle on its braided lanyard around her neck. "Oh my God. It's..."

Abby finished Erin's sentence for her. "...Ms. Miller, our high school gym teacher."

"Who would haunt a locker room?" said Patty as she pulled herself back to her feet. "Kind of a sad place to spend eternity if you ask me."

"Ms. Miller was never happier than when she was making her students run laps until they puked," Abby explained. "She loved being feared. This is probably her idea of paradise."

"Well, she can't stay here," said Erin. "Let's do this!"

Ms. Miller's shiny silver whistle floated up into her mouth. She blew on it, and a shrill, deafening screech split the air. Erin and Abby involuntarily dropped their wands and covered their ears. Patty drew her particle wand and shot at the ghost, but the stream of superheated plasma went wide and left a long dark scorch mark along the wall. "Help me out here!" she shouted.

"Just a sec," said Holtzmann as she ducked into a nearby toilet stall.

 _"Seriously?!"_ yelled Patty. Then, without warning, Ms. Miller swooped over and _through_ them, coating Erin, Abby, and Patty in a thick layer of green slime.

Patty groaned in disgust as she fired again and again, but the din of the whistle distracted her and interfered with her aim. Her blasts hit the lockers, the floor, the light fixtures - everything but the ghost. Erin couldn't bring herself to uncover her ears to the noise, no matter how hard she tried. _I will_ not _let this ghost beat me!_ she thought. _That C minus she gave me sophomore year was already insulting enough!_

Then Holtzmann burst out of the bathroom stall with thick wads of toilet paper shoved into her ears. Nonchalantly, she aimed her particle wand at Ms. Miller and fired. A perfect arc of plasma looped around the ghost and held it in place. Ms. Miller's whistle tumbled out of her mouth, and its piercing screech ceased. "Okay, help me hold her," said Holtzmann. "And get the trap."

Abby and Patty further immobilized the ghost with their proton packs while Erin fumbled with the cylindrical metal trap hanging from her belt. She tossed it beneath Ms. Miller, stomped on the attached switch to open it, and watched as a broad beam of blue light gradually sucked the apparition down. "It was really mean how you always let me and Abby get picked last for everything!" Erin shouted as Ms. Miller's ghost steadily vanished into the trap.

"And I don't care what your research says, the game of dodgeball has no pedagogical value whatsoever!" added Abby.

The trap snapped shut. The locker room fell suddenly silent. Holtzmann clapped Erin and Abby on their shoulders. "That's right," she said, half-yelling due to her plugged ears. "Let it all out."

Erin heaved a sigh. "Thanks. I feel better." She picked up the slightly smoking trap from the slimy, badly damaged floor and held it in front of her at arm's length. "Let's show this entity off to Principal Singh and see if we can get paid."

The Ghostbusters strode proudly out of the locker room - but as they approached the main gymnasium, Erin abruptly stopped in the middle of the hall. Up ahead, groups of well-dressed, attractive people were steadily pouring into the school through the front entrance. The sounds of soft music, muffled conversation, and clinking glasses wafted out of the gym. "Oh, no," said Erin. "I knew my class reunion was happening today. I didn't know it was happening here."

Patty shrugged. "It might be fun to catch up with old friends."

"Not like this," Erin said forlornly. "At our last reunion five years ago, I bragged to everyone about how I was tenure-track at Columbia. They don't know I got fired. How am I supposed to go in there and tell them that I'm…"

Abby finished the sentence for her. "...a successful entrepreneur in business with your friends, working with advanced technology based on cutting-edge scientific theories _you_ proposed, whose actions recently saved New York City?"

Erin didn't know what to say. And yet, the more she thought about it, the more she knew Abby was right. "I guess I never looked at it that way," she said.

"So," said Holtzmann with a grin, "should we go crash their party, then?"

"You mean all of us?" asked Patty.

"The invitations said Erin and I each get a plus one," said Abby. "Let's do it."

Abby took Erin's hand and gave it a friendly squeeze. Holtzmann and Patty linked elbows with them on either side. As they walked into the gym, arm in arm, tired and sweaty and covered in ectoplasm and wearing experimental nuclear reactors on their backs, Erin knew more than ever before that there was nowhere in the world she would rather be.


End file.
